What the business is
A cooking, shopping and meal-planning app whose smart recipes link directly to grocery delivery and in-store pickup.
Starting capital
Over $16M across seed, Series A (LG, previously unannounced) and a $6M Series B; investors include LG Technology Ventures, AB Electrolux and V-ZUG.
How it started
Kevin Yu spent eight years as a video game developer working with Warcraft and Blizzard and admits he couldn't cook. Curious whether an app could teach cooking step by step, he founded SideChef in 2014; it was named Best App of the Year for Google Play that year, and he later brought on co-founder and COO Cadence Hardenbergh.
What happened
Monetizing recipe users proved nothing like monetizing gamers, so SideChef linked up with Instacart around 2016 for grocery delivery and worked with appliance makers Sharp, GE and LG Electronics. The pandemic pushed more home cooking and revenue doubled three years in a row. The 2023 Series B funds an end-to-end cooking platform with image-recognition devices for automated cooking, plus monetization through online grocery, contextual marketing and data insights.
What has to be true
The founder's blind spot became the design: a non-cook built the step-by-step guide he needed.
The pivot follows the money: recipes monetize as commerce plumbing, not as paid content.
The same structured data sells twice — to grocery carts and to smart-appliance makers.
What can be applied
Content is a bad product to sell; content as structured data that drives someone else's transaction can be a great one.
Aftermath
As of March 2023 the Series B was funding an end-to-end cooking platform with image-recognition devices for automated cooking, plus online grocery purchasing, contextual marketing and data-insight monetization.
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